My First Recipe: Bacon Seafood Vodka Ziti With Cilantro and Provolone

It’s a challenge for me to cook for a multitude of reasons, so here are a few tips that are helping me move into better cooking/eating habits.

Planning:
Shop and bundle it with other activities
Ask friends for cooking tips

Shopping:
Ask for help at the deli and meat counter on how to cook what you buy
Buy things you like in small quantities so they don’t go bad

Cooking:
Ask someone to cook with you, come over for dinner, cook for a reason, or in bulk to get motivated
Start early I have an alarm to begin at 6pm
Eat a pre-dinner snack to concentrate, I usually have an apple
Cook as fast as you can
Clean when you cook so if you get tired, you can just go to bed

Here’s what you need:

1 pyrex baking dish
1 frying pan
1 sauce pan
1 big pot
1 strainer

3 slices provolone cheese
3 mini zucchini
5 garlic cloves
1 jar vodka sauce
1 lb. mixed seafood
1/2 lb. bacon
4 oz. olive oil
1 jalapeño pepper
1 bunch cilantro
1 white onion

preheat oven to 425
start boiling a large pot of water

mince garlic divide into two piles
mince cilantro
slice zucchini 1/8″ wide
slice jalapeno into thin strips
slice onion into rings, then cut rings in half

add 2 oz oil into sauce pan on medium heat
add 1 pile garlic and add onions
stir and brown, cover and let steam, then stir again every 2 minutes
add bacon
add peppers
add zucchini stir again every 2 minutes

In frying pan
2 oz oil
add other pile of garlic and brown while stirring
add in seafood
cook and stir for 5 minutes

add vodka sauce into saucepan
stir and lower heat to simmer

add contents of frying pan into sauce pan including the juices

stir

put water in big pasta pot, after achieving a rolling boil add penne pasta.

cook pasta six to 9 minutes , rinse drain, add olive oil and stir.

place pasta in bottom of pyrex dish cover with contents of sauce pan
place three slices of provolone over the top and cover evenly with cilantro bake 20-25 minutes and watch for melted cheese and slightly browned edges on the leaves.

remove from oven let stand for 3-5 min serves 4-6

Published by Pete Ippel

Pete Ippel, the son of a dancer and a musician, was born in Oak Park, Illinois and has been surrounded by the arts since birth. He moved to Morris, Illinois in 1989 and started to participate in athletics rather than dance. After high school, Pete attended Cornell University where he received a BA in psychology and a BFA in photo / digital art making. He continued to follow his sporting dreams in the high jump, which culminated in a school record leap of 7 feet 1/2 inch in 2001. In May 2004 he attained an MFA degree in the New Genres department of the San Francisco Art Institute. Presently Pete is a practicing artist whose work is in numerous private collections and has been exhibited in New York, California, and internationally. Mr. Ippel resides in Working Artists Ventura, a sustainable artist community in southern California. In addition, he teaches art, is a web developer, an active blogger, and still high jumps from time to time. As a passionate problem solver and a pragmatic optimist, Pete’s art and his life are full of exciting challenges.

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